tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8708101437720447541.post228588117917277317..comments2023-12-14T07:33:35.446-06:00Comments on Point Me to the Sky Above...: Banned BooksRAY Jhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07554153079752212370noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8708101437720447541.post-83632201995436609352010-10-02T15:00:38.321-05:002010-10-02T15:00:38.321-05:00I'm glad that Harry Potter has mostly been acc...I'm glad that Harry Potter has mostly been accepted as harmless by now. The witches in the TV show Charmed, while fantastical, had some similarities with Wiccan traditions, and Willow in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, while also possessing fantastical powers, was explicitly Wiccan. I could understand objections to books with witches like these, since they might tempt young people to stray to paganism. However, Harry Potter is so totally separate from the witchcraft that the Bible warns about (I mean, they even celebrate Christmas) that I don't think kids will confuse the two. I wonder if Rowling had just used the terms "wizard" and "wizardry" instead of including "witch" and "witchcraft" whether a lot of the trouble could have been avoided. Maybe that's part of why Lord of the Rings' wizards were easier to accept than Harry Potter's witches.<br /><br />I remember when we read Huckleberry Finn in high school, we read and watched recorded TV coverage about the controversy surrounding it and whether it should be banned. It was the first time that I really realized that people today sometimes ban books. Anyway, we had to write an essay on whether or not we thought it should be banned. I think as long as it's made clear to kids that the n-word is no longer acceptable, and the book only uses the n-word because it is true to the times in the book, then it's OK. And as I remember it, while Jim may talk funny and be relatively ignorant (he obviously wouldn't have received much of an education as a slave), he is clever in his own way and a good person. Given the character's circumstances, I think Jim is an anti-racist figure.Elenihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07661310499468356602noreply@blogger.com